Winter bees (=fat bee) are not physically fatter. Only disection will reveal greater fat body contents of the head and abdomenabdomen:
the segmented, posterior (third) part of the bee body that contains heart, honey, stomach, intestines, Malphigian tubules, reproductive organs, and sting
.
Fat Fall Bees refer to worker bees reared in late fall that have large quantities of Vitellogenin in their fat bodies. Such bees do relatively little brood feeding or other colony tasks and will live 5-6 months, compared to normal adult bee week survival of 5-6 weeks in the active season.
Oliver, Randy. 2007 Fat bees Part I,II and III. American Bee Journal August, September,October https://scientificbeekeeping.com/fat-bees-part-1/
Caron, Dewey m. 20 https://wvbahive.org/insuring-fat-fall-bees-overwinter-success/
Kulhanek, Chris. 2015. I prepped my honey bees for winter, but they died. What happened?
https://beeinformed.org/2015/03/30/i-prepped-my-honey-bees-for-winter-but-they-died-what-happened/
McAfee, Alison. 2020. Feeding Pollen Might Not Be as Useful as You Think. American Bee Jour. December https://americanbeejournal.com/4532-2/
